Candidates reaching out to evangelical Democrats in Texas

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/030208dnpoldemsrelig.3ad4efc.html



Not everybody was happy last year when the Democratic Party in Texarkana started selling T-shirts bearing a Bible verse and the words "Christian Democrat," John Delk recalls.

"We got resistance," said Mr. Delk, chairman of the Bowie County Democratic Party, because some Democrats feared looking too much like religious conservatives. But Mr. Delk declared it was time to send a signal that Republicans don't own religion and not all "values voters" are in the GOP.

A poll by the organization Faith in Public Life found that one in three white evangelical voters who participated in Super Tuesday primaries in Missouri and Tennessee voted Democratic. Texas is home to many evangelical voters, including Democrats in culturally conservative East Texas and churchgoing black voters in urban centers and Hispanics in South Texas.

On Friday, Mr. Obama stopped in the Rio Grande Valley, meeting with about 150 Hispanic evangelicals at the University of Texas at Brownsville. "I know that sometimes people are hesitant to mix church and state," he said. "But it's also important to remember that Jesus was an advocate. He wasn't afraid to go into the temple and throw that table down, drive the money lenders out. He was passionate about justice. Not just peace – justice."